A very cool restaurant has recently opened on Roosevelt just west of 3rd St. The Dressing Room, which calls itself a Micro Restaurant, serves up what they call global street food. It’s a very pleasant place with outdoor dining and the food is definitely good!

The First Friday Art Walk in Downtown Phoenix is an amazing event that has been happening for many years. The event has grown so large, you almost have to alternate parts of the Downtown area to focus your Friday night on. There is a Free Shuttle service that operates to take participants around, but it’s still way too much to take in on one night. New Times has produced a guide for the February 2017 First Friday Event highlighting some of the more interesting art on display.

Wow! Can you believe the Downtown Phoenix Public Market has been in operation now for 12 years? If you have never visited the Public Market on a Saturday, this coming Saturday, February 4th, would be a great time to check it out. The open air market features fresh locally grown veggies, a wide variety of vendors and Food trucks.

An ongoing dialogue between material, form, and the artist’s hand reverberates within each hollow form. To create his works, Thomas employs a process that is better known among blacksmiths than artists. Beginning with flat sheets of steel he cuts out shapes that are geometric iterations of circles and bends them so they can be welded together to create large hollow forms.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has granted a significant environmental approval for the planned South Central Light Rail Extension that moves the project closer to being built. The approval allows Valley Metro and the City of Phoenix to proceed with final design work on the extension, a milestone necessary for the project to be completed by 2023.

Sometime in late 2018, Downtown Phoenix may see it’s first real Grocery store, a 55,000 sq ft Fry’s store. Before construction can begin however, archeologists have been commissioned to deal with pre-historic Hohokam pit houses located at the site. There is also apparently a bomb shelter at the location which was constructed under a JC Penney store that once stood at the site. The archeological work has apparently just gotten underway as evidenced by the photo below.

Once the Fry’s store arrives, residents of the Central Park neighborhood will have just a very short walk to a beautiful urban, full service Grocery Store.

A few years back, Vincenz Saccento designed a very cool living space called the V-100 Mod Box. The V-100 is a futuristic looking dwelling that has tremendous appeal to single households with minimalist sentiments. The very first Mod Box project was done right here in the Central Park neighborhood. The Mod Box is better explained by watching a video than describing it in a Blog Post so check out the Video.

Phoenix is opening its downtown alleys to additions like public art, seating and restaurant service under a pilot program launched this month to enliven the spaces….

The vision is to transform passageways used for dumpsters and deliveries into places passers-by can “linger, relax and socialize,” according to the alley activation program policy approved by a City Council subcommittee.

Amenities could range from murals or potted plants to temporary fencing and a spot to grab coffee.

Phoenix will consider proposals for its public alleys located from McDowell Road to Sherman Street and Buckeye Road, between Seventh Street and Seventh Avenue. Applicants fund the improvements and have to pay a fee for larger renovations.

“This is another step on our accelerated timeline to build the South Central Extension by 2023 – 11 years earlier than initial plans,” said Vice Mayor Kate Gallego. “Our initial 20-mile Light Rail line has fueled more than $8.2 billion in economic activity along the route, and we’re now closer to bringing these economic benefits to areas from the Warehouse District to the Baseline Road Corridor.”